In some network environments, such as Provider Back Bone (PBB), the multicast traffic replication decisions are handled by the end points such as Backbone Edge Bridge (BEB) switch. BEBs may traditionally listen to both unicast and multicast traffic based on the same Service Instance Identifier (ISID) domain which by default is based on a Customer Virtual Local Area Network (CVLAN) domain to ISID relationship. Thus, there can be bandwidth waste in the Backbone Core Bridge (BCB) cloud due to multicast traffic not being pruned early.
Some conventional systems may not have a built-in (or preprogrammed) mechanism to achieve segregation of the multicast traffic, which may be due in part to these systems having been designed with very traditional PBB ideas in mind. For example, some conventional systems assign the ISID based on the initial classification, which is not expected to be changed later in the hardware pipeline. Thus, any idea of a staged classification approach that changes will likely not work.
Embodiments were conceived in light of the above-mentioned problems and limitations, among other things.